A Lesson In Grace
by Lightstiel
Summary: Lawrence, Kansas. Right after Mary dies, John drops his kids off at Sunday School while he visits with Missouri. Focuses on Dean Winchester, and his Sunday School Teacher, Castiel. AU.
1. An Angel to Pray To

_I wrote this just as a writing practice a couple days ago, but a few people expressed interest in it. I usually don't ask for reviews, but this is very much a side project and if you want more, I need to know people are reading it. _

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Castiel had never seen the boy that was standing in the doorway. He hadn't seen a parent drop him off, just that there was now a small boy in ripped jeans and a leather jacket that looked curiously around the classroom.

"Hello!" Castiel called across the room. "Could you come over here, Sir?" The boy seemed suspicious but went over the stranger anyway. "Could you tell me your name, young man?"

"Dean Winchester," he responded in a small voice. "My dad said that I needed to leave early to get Sammy from the nursery."

"Did your dad drop you off, Dean?" The boy nodded. "Well, I can't let you leave by yourself, but I will be more than happy to go with you to get Sammy."

"He is my little brother," Dean clarified.

"I see. Did your father go up to the church service?"

"Probably not, he said that he didn't believe in all that shit."

"Dean, we don't use that type of language here. Why don't you go over with the other kids and play until we start out lesson." Without a word, the kid left and found a box of blocks and began to build, separating himself from the other kids.

Castiel sighed, as he finished reading over the lesson. His sister Anna had dragged him out late to some bar in an attempt to find him a boyfriend, despite adamant attempts to explain that medical school did not allow for that kind of time. He watched Dean closely, not sure if he was going to cause trouble or not, but for now he was busy building some model of a car that the other children had taken an interest in.

After attempting to read the page multiple times, he decided that he was going to take the easy way out. "Who would like to watch a Veggietales?" Instantly, the majority of the class began cheering. Dean paused in his work only to look up and asses the situation before he went back to building. "Okay, we need to clean up then." Never before had Castiel had a Sunday School class that was so easy. Ten pairs of hands immediately went to cleaning up the blocks and play food that was scattered around the room.

"Can I keep my car up? I want to show my Dad when he picks me up," Dean asked standing protectively by his work, eyeing the other students. Castiel just sighed as nodded his head as he ushered Dean to the floor with the other children.

They all sat and watched the movie relatively undisturbed. The only problem came when one boy, Crowley, pulled the hair of another girl named Meg. She quickly smacked back his hand and glared at him, and the situation resolved himself. Castiel was too sleepy to bother correcting their behavior.

It was about halfway through the movie when he noticed that Dean was sitting with his knees to his chest, and his head buried in his hands. The man whispered Dean's name, and the child slowly came back to sit with his teacher against the wall. The boy's green eyes were surrounded by eyes stained red with bloodshot tears, and his freckles were drowning in snot and salty water. Castiel reached next to him to get a box of tissues off of the counter, and presented them to the kid.

"Hey, what's wrong?"He asked quietly. Dean just shrugged, a pile of used tissues collecting in his lap. Castiel handed him a trashcan.

"Do you just miss your brother?" This question Dean considered as he blew his nose again, but eventually decided that that wasn't completely right either.

"Then what is wrong?" He asked softly, getting a tissue and getting a tear that Dean had missed.

"The movie was talking about praying," the child said carefully, glancing back at the television.

"Do you know how to pray?" he asked, but very much doubting.

"My mom taught me," Dean said, starting to cry again, "b-but I don't think it works anymore."

"Why?" Asked Castiel, confused.

"Be-because I pray every night, and I don't think that she can hear me."

Shit, shit, shit… Castiel was not trained for stuff like this. "How do you know that she didn't hear you?"

"Because she doesn't come back," he sniffled.

"Oh," he considered, taking in the new information. "If she died, that means that she is an angel now, Dean."

"Really?" He asked, wiping his eyes on his jacket.

"Yes, but angels can't talk to us; at least, not directly."

"Dad said that angels don't exist."

"Well, sometimes Dads make mistakes," Castiel said carefully. "But angels can talk to us in other ways. Sometimes, you can hear their laughing in the wind or the rain. Other times, you will feel them in your heart. And sometimes they even do little things to tell you that they are there. Every time is different though."

Dean sat there and considered that, "oh," he spoke softly, cheeks red from crying.

The small child stood up, and gave Castiel a hug and, without another word, moved back over to the group of other children watching the movie.

Right as the movie ended just twenty minutes later, parents came in and began collecting their children. Dean was the last one left, and sat on the floor, finishing his car while Castiel cleaned up the room to his standards. He was about to take Dean up to the nursery when he heard someone yell the child's name from the hallway.

"Damnit, Dean, I told you to pick up Sam."

"That is my fault, Mr. Winchester. This church has a policy that we are not allowed to let children leave without their guardian. I was just about to take him up myself" This explanation did not seem to satisfy the large man in the hallway as he held an infant, who he took to be Sam.

"Well, I guess that isn't necessary. Come on Dean."

"Dad, I made a-"

"We are leaving," The man finalized, and began to walk down the hallway. Dean stood quietly for a moment before turning around to look at his teacher.

"Bye," he said, and after some hesitation, ran up to wrap his arms around Castiel's legs.

"Goodbye, Dean," the man smiled.

He watched as the boy ran out of the room, and sat down next to Dean's car, and began putting the blocks away.


	2. Fires and Tigers and Sharks, Oh My!

To be honest, it was a surprise when Castiel saw Dean Winchester walk into class the next Sunday. Instead of his leather, he wore a pair of dark jeans, and a dark green polo.

"It's good to see you, Dean," he smiled at the boy, who smiled back before again heading for the blocks.

Unlike last week, Castiel has put together a full lesson for his class. A craft, his bible story, snack, and even a song. Despite his sister's multiple bribes to get him out last night, he stayed home and planned out his morning to the fullest.

They had a few minutes before class started, and Cas watched the kids, he had twelve today, play with one another. A boy that had been absent last week named Benny watched Dean's work closely, which clearly made Dean nervous.

"If you knock it over, I'll knock you out," he threatened. Castiel wondered if he had heard that from his father, and took note.

"I didn't do anything!" The other boy exclaimed, but moved back a little just in case. "I just think it's cool."

"Well, then go over to the shelf and get more," Dean said, facing his building again.

"My name is Benny," the boy said, with an armful of more blocks.

"Dean."

"Well, it's a castle, right?" So we need dragons. And a princess. Dean looked at the other boy with the deep southern drawl like he was a genius. "Mr. Novak? Do we have any dragons?"

Castiel laughed at the boys. "No, he admitted, but I am sure you two would make very scary dragons yourself."

"But we need real dragons," Dean pouted, continuing construction.

"Meg!" Benny called. "Wanna be a princess?"

"I would rather be a dragon. Crowley can be the princess," she yelled back.

"Boys can't be princesses!" Dean yelled. "Their hair isn't long enough to throw down the castle walls!" Benny want over to the dress up box with an ugly red wing that he threw to Crowley. "Yeah, that's fine," Dean agreed, putting the last block on his masterpiece. "Just don't mess it up as you get in."

While it was time for their craft, Castiel couldn't help but watched amused as little Crowley, who was wearing a full suit, had been put into a wig and and a tutu and was now the princess of the castle. Meanwhile, Dean, Benny, and Meg were the dragons that had to protect the castle from the eight other kids who tried to tear it down. Their rule was, whoever knocked over the castle would win, but if they got tagged, they had to go back to the other side of the room and try again.

After ten minutes without the rescue of princess Crowley, Castiel stepped in and picked up the disheveled boy, and lifted him out of the castle. "Good game, guys, but it is time for our lesson. Can you all clean up and come over to the table?" There were minimal grumbles as the class picked up the blocks and made their way over to the colorful chairs around the short table.

As he talked, the teacher began pulling art materials down from the shelf. "Okay, so have any of you ever heard of Noah's ark?" About half of the hands went up in the class. "Good! It's okay if you don't, because we are going to learn about it. But what I want you to do, is make your favorite animal out of any of the supplies, okay? We will find out why once you are all done."

The man sat at the end of the table, and watched as the kids went to work. He couldn't make out what most of the animals were, but he knew these kids well enough to know that they would be sure to tell him once they were done.

"Meg, you can't put blue glitter on a blue paper! They blend in." In response to Crowley's comment, Meg hissed. Castiel sighed, but didn't do anything as the argument ended as quickly as it started.

Next to him, Dean was making something that looked like a tiger. "That's really good, Dean."

"My mom really liked tigers," he said, making the stripes out of black glitter. "She said that tigers were brave, and strong, and fast, and she gave me a stuffed one once that I sleep with every night."

"Oh wow, that's really cool Dean."

"I'm not very good at art stuff though," he said, pausing to look over his progress.

"But you are good at putting things together. So just put it together like a car. This piece goes here, that piece there. It's the same thing, just more colorful."

Dean just beamed at him. "You're right! Thanks, Mr. Cas!"

Castiel got up to look at the other projects, "a few more minutes," he said, and the art frenzy increased at the time limit. He still couldn't tell what most things were, aside from Meg's shark, but he made sure to complement each and every project somehow.

The lesson went well. Each kid, he hoped, had left with the basic understanding of the story. They didn't have time for the game due to their game of dragon at the beginning of the class, but they sat at the table and ate their snacks of animal crackers and apple juice boxes happily enough, so Castiel wasn't really going to worry about it.

Parents came by to pick up their kids as snacktime finished up, and Benny gave Dean a big hug and a wave as his parents came to take him home.

Again, Dean was the last one in the room, and helped Castiel pick up all the leftover juice boxes and napkins.

"Did you have a good week, Dean?" He asked, sitting down.

"Yeah, Sammy said his first word this week!"

"Really? What was it?"

"Dean," the kid exclaimed, a proud glow on his face.

"You and your brother must be really close," Castiel said, wondering if they should go get the younger Winchester.

"Yeah, he doesn't do much though. I just take care of him for now. Oh yeah, I need to tell you something else about my tiger! The other night, I fell asleep with him off my bed because I was really tired and didn't want to pick him up, but I woke up with him in my arms! Do you think it was my mom?"

Castiel considered this, " I don't know Dean, but I don't see why it wouldn't be. Maybe it was her way of telling you that she is watching out for you."

"Yeah," Dean said, looking down at his paper and glitter copy. "Can we go get Sam?"

"Of course," Castiel said, standing up and grabbing his coat.

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" Castiel asked as they made their way through the halls and copious amounts of smiling people.

"A firefighter," Dean said automatically.

"Why?"

"Because my mom died in a fire, and I want to save other people."

Oh. "I think you will make a greater firefighter, Dean Winchester."

John was already in the nursery picking up Sam when they got there. John noticed his older son, nodded and then pointed to the door that he took Sam out of.

"Bye, Mr. Cas!" Dean yelled as he followed his father.

Castiel waved to the kid as his sister ran up to him. "Who was that, Cassie?" She asked, pulling him to the sanctuary for the next service.

"One of my students. He has a rough life."

"I'm sure you make his week Cassie."

"I hope so."


End file.
